The 7th Sino-German Environment Forum was held in Taicang City, Jiangsu province on Thursday. The theme of this forum is "Promoting Green and Sustainable Development - Collaborative Response to Environmental Pollution, Biodiversity Loss, and Climate Change". Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment, Xu Kunlin, Governor of Jiangsu, and German Minister of Environment Steffi Lemke delivered speeches. The event was jointly organized by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the German Ministry of Environment, the People's Government of Jiangsu Province, and the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business.
Huang Runqiu pointed out in his speech that the Chinese government has always attached great importance to the construction of ecological civilization and the protection of the ecological environment. In the past decade, China has achieved tremendous achievements in ecological civilization construction that have attracted worldwide attention by achieving significant results in green development, pollution prevention and control, and ecological protection.
He said China will continue to uphold the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, firmly adhere to the path of civilized development that includes production development, prosperity in life, and good ecology, and promote stronger, green, and healthy global development.
Noting that over the years, the Sino-German Environment Forum has effectively promoted the implementation of the outcomes of the Sino-German government consultations, the Minister said China is willing to take this forum as an opportunity to jointly implement the consensus of the leaders of the two countries, strengthen communication and coordination in global and regional environmental affairs, and make greater contributions to addressing global environmental issues and promoting global sustainable development.
Xu Kunlin said that in recent years, Jiangsu has recorded a continuous rise in its total economic output by achieving a continuous decline in major pollutants and a significant improvement in ecological environment quality.
Jiangsu and Germany have a deep relationship. In recent years, the two sides have been active in investment and trade, frequent sister city exchanges, and close political and business interactions. Both sides have continuously strengthened cooperation in the field of environmental protection, providing new impetus for achieving green, low-carbon, and sustainable development.
Jiangsu is willing to take this forum as an opportunity to learn from Germany's good experience, deeply explore new opportunities for green cooperation, further promote environmental governance cooperation, deepen green industry cooperation, and strengthen friendly exchanges and cooperation.
The governor hoped that more German enterprises will invest in Jiangsu, participate in green manufacturing, energy utilization, industrial upgrading, and other fields, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results in helping Jiangsu's green transformation and create a better future together.
Lemke actively evaluated the long-term friendly cooperation relationship and positive achievements established between Germany and China in the fields of ecological environment and climate.
She said that Germany and China are two important economies that also need to play a pioneering role in environmental protection. The German side is willing to explore with the Chinese side how to jointly find solutions, formulate clear rules and agreements to achieve practical international cooperation, and jointly promote the achievement of global sustainable development goals.
